Prove Them Wrong
by WhereTheresWillTheresWay
Summary: Claire Barton, a waitress from New York, is sucked into dangerous missions to save her brother, and the world from Loki. Along the way, she will make friends and enemies. Is the world ready for a secret like hers?
1. Chapter 1

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

The day was ticking by, slowly. The lunch rush had already ended and the only customer was a regular. He was sipping his coffee at the other end of the diner. I had already wrapped silverware and cleaned off all the tables. I was exchanging my tips, dollar bills for larger bills, when the bell on the door chimed. I glanced up briefly, stowed my money and walked to the front counter.

"Miss Barton," Fury greeted me from the other side of the counter. He gave a small nod and smile, trying and failing to act friendly.

"Mr. Fury," I said kindly. I pulled my order pad and a pen from my apron pocket. "What can I get for you?"

"A burger, _to-go._ " I furrowed my brows but nodded. Something was wrong. I put in his order and gave him a copy of his receipt. I glanced around, the diner was almost empty, save for an older man at the end of the counter drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. Fury spoke in a soft voice. "I need you to come with me."

I sighed and looked at him. He gave me a look that said that it was important and I nodded. "Mr. Johnson, I'm not feeling well. Would you mind if I went home early?"

He looked at me, his mouth set into a hard line. I slumped my posture slightly, looking up at him. Let me go home, I thought. "You're my only waitress, Claire."

"I know, and I wouldn't go if I didn't feel terrible. I think it's that flu that's going around," I lied smoothly. Let me go home, I thought again. He frowned but gave in, nodding his head.

"Feel better, Claire." I nodded a little and tugged my jacket on, pretending to be cold. I slipped out the back door and met Fury in his black SUV half a block down the street. Slamming the door shut, I looked at him.

"This had better be good, Fury, I just gave up half a day of tips," I mutter, pulling my seat belt on. "What do you need?"

"I'll tell you at the jet," was all Fury gave. I narrowed my eyes.

"Fury," I said, facing him. Sweetly, I asked, "Do you want to tell me now?"

"At the jet," was his reply. I huffed like teenager and slumped into my seat. "You can have the burger, I know you don't eat enough."

Biting my lip, I watched New York fly by out of my passenger window. His offer was tempting, but I shook my head. "Give it to Maria."

We reached the jet a short time later. Fury shook his head as I opened my mouth to demand an answer. Pursing my lips, I climbed into the jet with him. He spoke to the captain for a few minutes while I buckled myself in. I learned the hard way last time when Clint took me for a ride.

"Now can I know?" I asked him as he buckled in beside me. He looked like he was going to open his mouth to say something but the roar of the jet engine cut him off. He looked at me as apologetically as he could. His face seemed to be set into a permeant scowl though. The entire climb to the sky, I stared at him intently. Once we reached a cruising altitude, he spoke.

"How much do you know about Clint's current assignment?"

"Everything," I stated, looking at him with a dull stare. He should have known that Clint would tell me.

"You know that Clint has been guarding a very valuable item?" He quizzed.

"Yes," I sighed. I knew that I would have to tell him just how much I knew. This would probably get Clint in trouble. "Clint told me that you put him in charge of overseeing the Tesseract project. Watching to make sure nothing went wrong, just like you asked. He's stationed at an underground base, somewhere in the Southwest in a desert area. He didn't even know the exact location. He won't even call me while he's there. Why? What's wrong with Clint?"

"Do you know what happened in Puente Antiguo, New Mexico last year?" He questioned again.

"Some god was banished from his home, his jealous brother tried to have him killed," I said, trying to read his face. "Flattened the entire town. Clint told me that it was a war-zone when a giant robot attacked, nothing was left of the town. There was a scientist or physicist there too, trying to help the banished god."

"Yes," Fury said. "A Norse god by the name of Thor was sent to Earth by his father. His brother, Loki, tried to have him killed. The scientist is Dr. Erik Selvig, the astrophysicist is Dr. Jane Foster. That is not really important. Loki, the 'jealous brother', came back to earth. He stole the Tesseract from the underground base where Clint was working."

"Clint," I swallowed hard, dread filling my stomach. I felt sick. "Is he alive?"

"Yes," Fury spoke slowly, he looked like he wasn't telling me something. I felt the jet start to drop for landing. When I peered out the window, I noticed that it was going to land on a ship in the middle of an ocean. "Loki had a staff, the staff allows him to have control over people, over their minds. Mind-control, if you will. He has Dr. Selvig and Clint."

"What?" I took a deep breath, unstrapping myself from the seat as soon as I felt the plane touch down. "What do you mean by that?"

"Agent Clint Barton has been compromised," Fury's words hit me like a ton of bricks and left my blood like ice. I stood in the jet for a second. I didn't move until the pilot came up to me and told me that he needed to get it into the carrier. This sent me scrambling to catch up with Fury. I finally found him in the control room. I had just found the control room when I felt the ship move, causing me to stumble slightly. From the front windows, I could see the ship rising into the air. It was no ship, but a helicarrier, I soon realized.

"We're at level, sir," Maria Hill spoke.

"Good, let's vanish," Fury responded, then turned to look at me.

"What do you mean to tell me that my brother has been compromised?" I spoke with slow words and deep breathes.

"Claire, calm down," Director Fury spoke in a soft tone of voice while my own hysteria rose. "We'll get him back."

"Calm down, Nick? Calm down?" I nearly shrieked at him. As I glanced around, I noticed the people in the control room were starting to stare. Except for Maria Hill, who was trying to enjoy the burger Fury ordered. "Nicholas, you promised him. You promised me. You told me that he wouldn't get hurt, that he would be safe."

"And he is," Fury then added softly, "for the most part."

"Being brainwashed by a god from a different planet is not safe."

"Gentleman," Fury greeted.

"Ma'am?" A soft tone interrupted the argument Fury and I were having. The stranger discreetly handed Fury a ten dollar bill while I furrowed my brows.

"What?" I said coldly, turning to face the voice. When I turned, I was staring into a broad, well defined chest covered by a plaid button down shirt and a brown leather jacket. I looked up at the man towering above me. He has sandy blonde hair and sky blue eyes. His jaw was clenched, making it look more square than it really was.

"Miss," the man trailed off, not knowing my name.

"Claire Barton." I said harshly. Vaguely, I heard Fury talking with another man, thanking him for coming. The man replied with a snarky comment that made two of the agents closest to me giggle.

"Miss Barton, we will find him. We will bring him back safely." The man said politely, he spoke like he was trying to calm a frightened child.

"Claire," Natasha's voice made me turn quickly on my heel. "Claire, Clint's tough. We'll get him back."

"Tasha, I hope you are right." I huffed out with a pout on my lips. Natasha moved silently to me and embraced me in a hug, rubbing gently on my back. It was good to see her again, even under the circumstances. I pulled back from Tasha after a brief moment. I noticed that the control room was starting to get rather crowded. Tasha stepped back from me, looking at Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

"How far are you with that?" The man with a gray suit spoke.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Agent Phil Coulson replied. I looked at him as Natasha mentioned that it might not be fast enough to find Clint in time.

"Dr. Banner, Captain Rogers, this is Agent Clint Barton's little sister, Claire. She's going to be helping us with this mission." Maria spoke up, directing her attention to the doctor and Mr. Rogers. I looked at the screen with Clint's face on it, then to the screen replaying the clip from inside the room that housed the Tesseract. Quickly, I looked away. I didn't want to see what happened to Clint yet. "Claire?"

"Hm," I said, Fury's voice shaking me out of my trance.

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Fury asked.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys," Tasha joked.

"Miss Barton, please show Captain Rogers to his room?" Fury eyed me.

"This way," I said as I started to walk.

"I know it must be hard on you, seeing your brother in danger," Captain Rogers spoke once we reached the hallway. As we walked, a few people on the carrier said hi to Captain Rogers or saluted him, which made me wonder how he was so popular. I remembered the disc in my bag that contained profiles on everyone and made a mental note to look at that as soon as possible.

"Yea, it is," I looked up at him. He must have stood at least six foot tall, easily towering over my five foot three frame. I spoke again when we reached a door, "Here you go, Captain, I'm right across the hall if you need anything."

"Thank you, Miss Barton, and please, call me Steve." He smiled before turning the doorknob and letting himself into his room. I nodded and went into my own room and sat on the bed. The disc that Fury handed me with everyone's file nearly burned a hole through my hands. Quickly, I put the disc into the computer drive and looked through the files. Clint's file held footage of what happened at the base, it made my stomach sick to see how easily the 'god' took control of him.

Looking through each of the files on the disc, I took in the information like a sponge. There was a file on something called "The Avengers", which would include Captain America, Natasha, Dr. Banner, Tony Stark, Thor, Clint, and myself. Some of the names I recognized, some I did not. I carefully studied each file, reading the articles and watching all the video clips.

Steve's POV:

Director Fury had given me a disc with file's on everyone for me to look at before training tomorrow. Carefully, I inserted the disc into the computer slot and waited for it to start up, my mind wandering to Claire Barton. She was a petite girl, but from what I saw with Fury, not one to be messed with. I skipped over my own file, looking at Clint's. His file held his picture, video clips of him in action, his statistics, nothing too special. The bottom of his file was label "Compromised Until Further Notice." The next file was Claire's. Her file was scarce. A few pictures of her, no videos, where she used to work, her statistics, but nothing more. I stared at the black haired, blue eyed girl looking back at me from the screen. It said she was only five foot, three inches tall and weighed 115 pounds. I found it strange at how much was missing from her profile after I flipped through everyone else's. I remembered how Director Fury mentioned that she was Agent Barton's sister, but they looked almost nothing alike. The only feature they shared was their eyes. Briefly, I wondered if they were only half-siblings.

I found myself thinking back to the argument she and Fury were having. She was a spitfire when she was mad, that's for sure. There was something else about her that I couldn't place, she was a mystery. She drew me in, like a moth to a flame.


	2. Chapter 2

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

I sulked in my room reviewing files until about 7PM. I hadn't eaten since that morning and my stomach was protesting against it. I should have taken Director Fury's offer on his burger. Turning the computer off, I slowly made my way down to the cafeteria. The smell of food assaulted my nose and made my stomach rumble again. I quickly grabbed a basket of chicken strips and a salad and walked to a table in the corner, trying to make myself as unnoticeable as possible. As I speared a piece of lettuce onto my fork, I noticed Steve walk in with Dr. Banner. Ducking my head down, I prayed they didn't see me. I was not in the mood for company, although I'm sure they were good company.

"Miss Barton," I heard Dr. Banner's soft voice say. Placing a small smile on my lips, I looked up at him. Dr. Banner's eyes looked tired, his face looked worn. I guess if I had a giant green person inside of me I would be tired to though. Deep inside of me, I didn't think that the Hulk was a monster, just misunderstood.

"Dr. Banner, Steve," I nodded to them, taking a bite quickly. Steve's grey dinner tray had a mountain of food on it. At least two burgers, a salad, french fries, and a plate of spaghetti. Dr. Banner's tray had a much more reasonable amount of food on it, a large grilled chicken salad and a bread roll.

"How are you feeling?" Dr. Banner asked, eyeing my own tray of food. I picked at my salad again, trying to avoid their eyes.

"Fine, I guess."

"I know this must be hard on you," Dr. Banner spoke between bites of his food. His voice held a fatherly tone. "Agent Barton is one of the best out there. He's going to be okay. But when he gets back, he'll be upset if he sees that you haven't taken care of yourself."

"You need to eat, then rest, Miss Claire," Steve spoke up, wiping his mouth off.

"I am eating." Shoving a piece of lettuce into my mouth was my response. With half a salad and the entire basket of chicken strips left, I pushed back from the table. "Here."

"Miss Barton," Dr. Banner started to say as I set the untouched chicken strips onto Steve's tray.

"I'm tired, I'm going to go lay down." I heard Steve call after me, but I chose to ignore him as I walked from the cafeteria. I did not need them getting onto me about my health. A guilty feeling took over and I knew that I should not have taken my frustration out on them. With a sigh, I made a note to apologize to them tomorrow. As soon as I got to my room, I locked the door and turned music on softly. Maybe a shower would do me good, I thought to myself as I walked to the bathroom and turned the hot water on full blast.

The shower was steaming hot when I stepped in. It burned my skin, but I didn't care. After washing myself, I stood in the shower and let the water run over my body. The water turned cold far too soon for my liking, but I got out anyway and dried myself off. It was past 10PM now. I must have been in the shower for at least an hour, maybe more. I didn't care. Laying down on my bed, I stared at the ceiling until I feel asleep.

My dream turned into a nightmare during the night. It wasn't a typical monsters and bad guy nightmare. It was more abstracted. There was splashes of colors, emotions, voices yelling too fast for me to understand. The voices were in English and another language I could not understand. My vision was black and red, then green, then blue. Anger. Frustration. Pain. It blended together until it found an escape through my own lips.

 **Steve POV:**

After Claire left the dinner table, I quickly finished eating and walked with Dr. Banner back to his room. Claire's file was open on my desk again, drawing me in. There was something special about that blue eyed girl that I couldn't place. To clear my head, I took a quick shower then picked up the young adult fiction novel that I was reading to attempt to connect with the present time. It was almost midnight, four chapters into the book, when the noises started. The noises were so soft that I was sure a normal human couldn't have heard them. There were whimpers and grunts. Bedsprings creaking like someone was rolling over. The thrashing started next, followed by whimpers that grew louder and louder. The screaming started soon after that. It was ear piercing, yelling, crying, screaming, all mixed into one. Quickly, I ran to the hallway, looking around. Several other agents started to fill the hallway. It was all coming from Claire's room.

I put my head near Claire's door, listening for her. She was still screaming. Without thinking, I used my shoulder to ram the door open. Before I could do anything else, Natasha's form slipped around me and rushed into the room, to Claire's bed. Natasha gathered Claire up into her arms, rocking her gently, soothing her with soft voices. It was the type of interaction that a parent might use to comfort a small child. Claire's skin was paler than normal, almost the color of milk. It was shiny with sweat and her fists were balled. Her entire body was tense, her head thrown back. She was trashing too hard for Natasha to hold onto. I moved to the bed as Dr. Banner filled the doorway. I held my arms out to take Claire from Natasha, but she shook her head.

"What's happening," He said, going into official doctor mode.

"She's having a night terror," Natasha said to us, then turned to Claire. "Claire, honey, I'm right here."

"Steve, get a cool washcloth from the bathroom, Natasha, try to wake her up," Dr. Banner ordered. He ran from the room, assuming to get a medical kit. Claire awoke with a gasp, shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm. Her breathing was labored and uneven as she burrowed into Natasha's arms. A pang of jealousy hit my heart and I had to push it away.

 **Claire POV:**

The emotions and nightmare broke away as I heard Tasha's voice.

"It's just a dream, Claire," Her voice was soft. "Just a dream. You're here, with me. I won't let anything hurt you. I promise, Claire." I felt like I couldn't breath, my head hurt and my body felt like it was on fire.

"It was so real," I breathed out as Steve placed the washcloth over my forehead. I peaked my eyes open, looking up at them. My fear filled eyes widened as I saw him. I knew my nightmares were bad, Clint would tell me so. But I didn't think that I would wake up other people. "I woke you too?"

"It's alright," he smiled down at me. Rubbing my back he continued, "I was already up."

"Claire," Dr. Banner sighed as he stepped closer. "Do you mind if I get a reading of your vitals?"

I shook my head and moved out of Natasha's lap and back onto my bed. Steve had arranged my pillows so that I was half laying down. He was looking at me like I might break any second now. Tasha's hand found mine and she squeezed gently. Dr. Banner started to fiddle with a blood pressure cuff and a stethoscope as I spoke. "I'm sorry I woke you guys up. I didn't think that I would have a nightmare again. It's been months."

"You're okay," Natasha soothed as she stroked my hair. She was used to them. When I lived with Clint and Tasha would come over, she or him would help calm me down. "Clint will be here soon to do this, okay?"

"Everything looks okay, Claire," Dr. Banner commented. "Just try to get some rest, okay?"

I nodded, then looked to Natasha as she spoke.

"I'll let you get some sleep. I'm right down the hall, okay?" She stood to leave, kissing my forehead gently.

"Sleep well, Claire. I'm here if you need anything," Steve mentioned as he stood up too. My cheeks flushed as I realized that he didn't have a shirt on, just old fashion plaid pajama pants. I nodded, trying not to stare at his chest. I then flushed deeply, realizing that I was in just a tank top and spandex shorts. After everyone had left the room, I closed my eyes and took deep breathes, trying to get to sleep.

The next morning when I woke up, I was sore. The nightmare must have taken a lot out of me. Dressing quickly in black pants and a black shirt, I walked to breakfast. The other agents looked at me and I briefly wondered if I had woken them up too. I grabbed a bagel with peanut butter and a coffee and went to sit down.

"How are you feeling?" Steve asked. I looked up startled, I hadn't even heard him come up. He was wearing a white shirt and khaki's, very 1940s.

"Better," I said, taking a sip of coffee. "I'm sorry, about last night. All the stress must have triggered a nightmare. I don't usually get them, I didn't mean to wake you, or Dr. Banner, up."

"It's okay," Steve replied. "Really. I'm glad to see you eating more. You need your energy." I gave him a soft smile and ate the last piece of bagel. "Director Fury wanted me in the control room, I'll see you around."

"Sure thing," I replied, finishing my coffee, walking towards Dr. Banner's lab to speak with him.

"Agent Romanoff, Miss Barton, you are needed to the control room," the PA system announced. I stood up and threw my trash away with Steve and jogged to keep up with Steve.

"We've got a location on Loki, Stuttgart, Germany. We need you to go get him, suit up," Fury announced as soon as I got into the room. "Claire, it is time."

I nodded and ran with Natasha and Steve back to our rooms to get ready to leave. I pulled on my dark blue and black jumpsuit, slipping my boots on and strapping them into place. From a drawer in my desk, black fingerless gloves accompanied my outfit. When I met up with Natasha and Steve again, it was on a jet. Natasha was wearing her infamous black jumpsuit, equipped with all of her 'toys', as she called them. Steve looked very handsome in his patriotic Captain America uniform, though he was giving me a strange look.

"Can you do this, Claire," Natasha asked me, going to sit up in the pilot's seat.

"Yes," I said, looking down at my own suit. It had been a long time since I had worn it. I prayed to myself that I still knew what I was doing.

"Claire, is this safe for you?" Steve asked, looking at me. There was concern in his voice.

"No, but nothing is anymore," I replied. "I can do this, Captain."

The flight wasn't as long as I expected it to be, but it still had me pacing around the jet. I was constantly taking my gloves off, then putting them back on. I had french braided my hair once, undone it and then redid it. Steve kept shooting glances my way, so I sat down and took to fiddling with my fingers.


	3. Chapter 3

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

Claire's POV:

"We're almost there, Captain," Natasha said from her spot at the control panel She glanced back at me for a moment, giving me a sharp glare. "Claire, you are back up. You are not to fight unless you have to, Fury's orders."

"Fine," I sulked, looking out of the front window from my seat behind Natasha. I squinted my eyes to get a better look, leaning over the panel. "Did Halloween come early this year?"

"No," Natasha replied slowly. I pointed my finger to a spot outside the window. A crowd of people kneeling in front of four identical men. I bit my lip and looked closer, leaning over the controls some. It was one man, projected into four other spots. The man was dark headed and wore a helmet with horns sticking out of it. He was dressed in armor and a cape.

"Hey, Steve," I called out, catching his attention. He looked up at me as he strapped on his helmet. "Don't let the cow man beat you."

He nodded and chuckled before jumping out of the jet carrier and in front of a blue beam of light the crazed man shot from a staff. The beam was originally aimed at an older man, who had chosen not to follow the rest of the crowd in kneeling before this man. The blue beam bounced off Steve's shield and back to the man. I watched, biting my lip, and scanned the crowd for a glimpse of Clint. Steve stood tall, watching the other man scramble to his feet.

"You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing," Steve spoke confidently. He was slowly marching towards the man. I realized that Steve was talking about World War II and my stomach lurched at the thought of what Clint had told me about Steve before he went into the ice.

"The soldier," the dark haired man spoke. He had a slight British accent, but I knew from the files that he was not from earth. "A man out of time."

"I'm not the one who's out of time," Steve retorted. As they spoke, Natasha flew closer, tapping a few buttons before speaking into a microphone connected at her headset.

"Loki, drop the weapon and stand down," her voice rang out over the intercom. There was a sudden jolt to the left as Natasha veered out of the aim of the energy beam from the staff that Loki wielded. The energy in the beam caused the hair on my arm to stand up straight and Natasha's sudden jerk sent me out of the jet carrier. Thinking fast, I rolled in the air and landed on my feet much like a cat would. My boots making a solid thud and bracing myself with my gloved hands.

I landed in the middle of the crowd and instantly yelled at them in both English and German to run. Suddenly, I was thankful for the little German that Clint had taught me. As I looked up, I saw Steve in hand to hand combat with the man, Loki. It was hard to tell who was winning, but Steve had lost his shield.

"Loki," I yelled as I tossed a rock at Loki. It landed with a clink on his helmet and he spun around, eyes dark and mouth sneering. I prayed this gave Steve enough of a distraction. "Don't you think Halloween is a little far off? Or do you dress like that everyday?"

This was the distraction Steve needed, however, I was not ready for it. Loki raised his staff into the air. The air crackled around my skin with electricity. A blue beam hit me square in the chest, giving me little time to absorb it. My knees started to buckle underneath me and I gritted my teeth. I held up a hand, palm to Loki, and focused the excess energy towards him. In a brilliant flash of white, a beam shot from my hand, spiraling in the air towards Loki. He saw what I was doing and jumped out of the way. He whispered, "Incredible. What power you have."

He had just landed a few feet away from my beam of energy when Steve tackled him, focusing the attention on him again. I looked around for a moment before bracing myself and focusing on the water in the fountain. Before I could send the water rushing onto Loki, he glanced towards me, sending another bolt as he did so. This time, I was unable to absorb the energy and it knocked me off my feet. I could almost feel the bruises forming on my body.

He turned away from me and put the butt of his staff against Steve's helmet, forcing him down. Pushing myself to my feet, I ran towards Loki, catching him off guard and tackling him to the ground. Steve was able to use this to his advantage, as Loki stood up he jumped and kicked him back. This gave me time to recover and get to my feet as I saw Loki knock Steve to the ground again.

I took a deep breath and fired more energy through my palms to him. Loki knocked me backwards with a quick kick to the chest. A sharp crack rang through my head as it made contact with the concrete. Loki stood over me, hovering his staff above my sternum. I spit out a curse word and blood from my mouth.

"You have heart," he said simply. "Let's see if you can keep it, shall we?"

Before Loki did anything, music started blasting from the sky. All of our heads shot to the jet. Shoot to Trill by AC/DC was playing on the PA system and something told me that it was not Natasha's choice. My suspicions were confirmed when a man in a red and gold metal suit launched an attack at Loki, sending him back into me.

"Get off," I grunted as I shoved him off of me. My vision was blurry as I stood. I held a hand to him, ready to fire should he want to continue this battle. Iron Man landed next to Steve and surveyed the scene. He stood, holding a hand up like I did, but also a hand out and getting missiles ready to fire. I quickly skirted behind him, looking to Loki. Steve joined me as Tony Stark spoke.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games." In a golden haze, Loki's armor shifted back into 'normal' clothes. Although, his clothes were anything but normal. He wore a dark green shirt and black pants that reminded me a lot of the Renaissance clothing I had seen when Clint took me to the fairs. I glanced to Steve, then up to the jet where Natasha was. Loki held up his hands and Tony put away all the guns in his suit. "Good move."

Steve glanced to Tony, trying to catch his breath as he spoke. "Mr. Stark."

Tony nodded his head. "Captain."

I rolled my eyes and felt as if I should join in. Sarcastically, I added, "Loki and Claire. Now that we are done with introductions…"

I trailed off as I produced a special form of handcuffs and approached Loki. I was giving him a death glare, waiting for him to try anything. Surprisingly, he didn't attempt anything.

"You are bleeding," he said softly as I cuffed him. I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at him. One moment he was trying to kill me and the next he was concerned.

"I wonder why," I said sarcastically. He must have caught the tone in my voice. Once on the jet, I sat down, grabbing a hidden bottle of water and a bandana from Natasha.

"I assume you're Claire and Reindeer over here is Loki," Tony spoke, looking at me. I was wetting the cloth and dabbing at my busted lip, cleaning the blood from it.

"Bingo," I looked up at him, taking a long drink of water. Steve tried to hold back a chuckle as Loki watched. "And you are Tony Stark. I didn't think that you would be joining us, nice entrance though."

"It's all about style," he smirked and sat down next to me, grabbing my water bottle. I grabbed a spare and tossed it at Steve. He nodded and drank it all in one gulp.

"Are you alright?" Steve asked me, looking over my face and arms. I could tell that he was scanning for injuries. Clint used to do the same thing.

"I'll be okay," I nodded to him. "Nothing I haven't had before."

"You hit your head pretty hard," Steve moved to look at the back of my head. I shook him off.

"I'll be okay," I replied again.

"If you two will stop being so… so…" Tony Stark struggled to find the words. Loki sat across from us and watched. He turned to Loki, "So, Reindeer Games, why were you trying to destroy Germany?"

"Actually, I have a much larger target," Loki spoke. Steve narrowed his eyes at him, then looked to me.

"What was that out there?" Steve asked me.

"What was what?" I feigned innocence, slumping back in my seat. A slow pain was spreading through my head. Steve struggled for the words to describe what I had done.

"He," Steve pointed to Loki, "struck you with the scepter. Except, it didn't hurt you like it should have."

"It's something that I've always been able to do," I sighed and nodded to Loki. "I'd rather speak about it at debriefing."

"Understood," Steve spoke, nodding. He watched me closely and I bit my lip.

"Wait, I missed something cool?" Tony whined, standing up from his seat. He looked to me and suddenly I was reminded of a little kid. "I want to see the cool trick."  
"Later, Tony," I looked up at him.

"Capsicle got to see the cool trick," he pouted. Steve glared at Tony.

"Yes, well, Steve and I did most of the work," I replied, walking to the first aid kit onboard and digging out a few aspirin. I could feel Steve frowning at me as I turned to Loki.

"My brother, always carries around a bow and arrow, the badass type, what have you done with him?"

"I am afraid I know nothing of what you are talking about," Loki shrugged. I took a deep breath, calming myself.

"You know damn well that is not the case. Let me refresh your memory," I hissed out, holding my palm up towards the roof of the carried, projecting a picture of Clint to him. The hair on Loki's arms stood straight. I wanted to kill him right then and there. "Now does he look familiar?"

"Ah, yes," Loki smirked. "He's under my control now, very useful too. You do remind me of him. However, he does not have such powers. Tell me, how did you get yours?"

"None of your business," I turned away sharply, walking up to Natasha. Steve and Tony stared at me. Steve's gaze was of confusion, while Tony looked amazed.

Steve POV:

I knew that Claire had been hurt in the battle between Loki. However, she would not let me get close enough to examine her injuries. Tony and her were speaking and I looked down at the empty bottle of water, trying to make sense of what had happened in the fight. One moment, Claire was safely in the jet, the next moment, she's on the ground, throwing rocks at Loki. I was grateful for her distractions, however, I was scared she'd get hurt. It was during the fight I realized that I, Captain America, was scared for the first time in 70 years.

Before I could blink, Loki had shot a beam from his staff towards Claire. I pushed to my feet, hoping I could get to Claire in time, but even with my speed, I knew I couldn't. The light hit Claire in the chest and I braced myself for the worse, expecting to lose her. Instead of destroying her, the blue light seemed to vanish into her body. Her knees gave out and she looked as if she was going to fall, but she didn't. She simply stood back up and fired back at him. From her hand. Loki's voice shook me out of my thoughts and I looked to Claire, studying her for a moment before trying to ask her what had happened.

"What was that out there?" I looked to her, still trying to wrap my mind around what I had seen.

"What was what?" She said in a sweet voice. She leaned back in her seat and winced slightly. I could tell that she was hurt more than she let on. Suddenly, I felt like a fish out of water. I opened and closed my mouth a few times, trying to pull the words together to describe what she had done. I accepted that she did not want to talk about what had happened in Loki's presence. I would have wanted to either. Mr. Stark whined about wanting to see what Claire had done but she shut him down. Suddenly, she turned to Loki, her eyes dark.

"My brother, always carries around a bow and arrow, the badass type, what have you done with him?" She spoke sharply. Her voice almost had me scared, but it didn't seem to phase Loki as he shrugged her off.

Without warning, she turned her hand over, palm up and a picture of Agent Barton appeared as a hologram would. Claire's eyes were glowing slightly. I glanced to Tony, but found him staring at her like a child would a new toy. Loki seemed to know exactly what he was doing and what buttons to push.

"Ah, yes. He's under my control now, very useful too. You do remind me of him. However, he does not have such powers. Tell me, how did you get yours?"

Claire narrowed her eyes at Loki and hissed that it was not his business. I couldn't help but watch her, making a note not to get on her bad side.

"Wow," Tony muttered once Claire was next to Natasha. "She's a spitfire, isn't she?"


	4. Chapter 4

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

 **Claire POV:**

"You probably shouldn't have done that," Natasha spoke. "Fury won't like that you went into combat."

"Fury can kiss my ass," I huffed. Softly, I added, "I wish that Clint would have been there."

"We'll get him back, Claire," Natasha looked towards me. Her eyes held a promise I wished I could believe. I looked down, nodding slightly. Her voice turned motherly as she spoke again. "Go sit back down, you shouldn't be standing while I'm flying."

With a small sigh, I walked back to where the men were and sat down. Loki's words from before echoed in my head. He didn't have to say it, but I knew that he thought I was a freak. Maybe I was. When I was younger, kids would call me and Clint both freaks. I could still hear the chanting of the kids on the playground. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. To try to distract myself, I glanced around the jet. Steve was talking with Tony in on one side and Loki was sitting by himself silently on the same side as me. He looked like he was deep in thought as well.

"I don't like it," Steve spoke up. I glanced to him.

"Hm?" I asked, half in thought.

"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" Tony chucked to himself. Thinking he was funny. I rolled my eyes.

"It's not a joke," I spoke up.

"I don't remember it being that easy," Steve replied, furrowing his brows. "This guy packs a wallop." I chucked mentally at Steve's words, he was still using slang from the 40s.

"Still, you were pretty spry," Tony smiled to himself. Steve glanced at me and I just shrugged. Tony then added, "For an older fellow. What's your things? Pilates?"

"What?" Steve looked at me. I smiled to myself, trying to imagine Steve Rogers in a Pilates or yoga class. My thoughts consumed my time again until I was shaken from my thoughts by the sound of thunder overhead. Lightening lit up the jet. My head jerked up and I caught Steve's eyes.

"Thunder?" I questioned, something didn't sit right. I had triple checked the weather reports before I left and not a one of them said that there was rain in the forecast. "There is not a single chance of rain."

"Where's this coming from?" Natasha groaned, trying to hold the jet steady. I leaned forward, looking out of the windshield of the jet, then back to Steve. Steve looked to Loki. Loki was looking around the jet with a worried expression. Thunderstorms were not my favorite, but he looked pretty terrified at the sound.

"What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?" Steve joked. He then glanced back towards me, realizing that I was, in fact, slightly scared. He gave me an apologetic smile and mouthed sorry.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki replied. As soon as Loki was done speaking, a loud thud rocked the ship. I jerked me forward and nearly into Loki's lap. I quickly looked to Steve and Tony. Both of the men were in a stance that meant they were ready to go. Tony grabbed his helmet and snapped it into place while Steve grabbed for his helmet and shield. In the process, Tony had opened the rear entrance on the jet. The word idiot rang through my head. A man, who I knew as Thor, came in, hitting Tony back towards Natasha. Clint had told me about Thor before. He scanned the jet quickly, eyes landing on Loki. Within seconds, he had Loki by the neck. Loki instantly reached out and wrapped an arm around me, pulling me out of the jet with him and Thor. My stomach sank.

I was positive that I let out a scream as Thor sucked us through the air. My head hit a piece of armor and sent a ringing through my ears. I could not tell whose armor I hit, but I was sure it was Thor's. The air whooshed around me, sucking the breath from my chest. It was hard to breath as we landed. Loki held me close to him, using me as a shield from his brother. Thor glanced over me, before he snarled and shoved me away. I landed with a thud and rolled onto my feet. The contents of my stomach threatened to come up. Thor then knocked Loki to the ground and stood over him.

"Where is the Tesseract?" Thor demanded, ignoring me.

"I missed you too," Loki joked. Thor's eyes darkened as I glanced between them.

"Do I look to be in a gaming mood?" Thor growled out. I stood to the side, watching the brothers interact. I did not want to be in the middle of a god-fight.

"Oh, you should thank me. With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the AllFather have to muster to conjure you here? Your precious Earth." He spat out. Loki's words struck a nerve with the blonde haired god because he dropped his hammer and grabbed Loki.

"I thought you dead," He hissed to Loki.

"Did you mourn?" He laughed slightly. I rolled my eyes. So far, Thor seemed to have things under control. He seemed to have Loki under control. I let the brother's continue their argument.

"We all did. Our father," He trailed off. Loki held up a finger, telling him to pause. Thor let go of Loki, letting him take a few steps.

"Your father! He did tell you of my true parentage, did he not?" Loki yelled. This made me curious and I gently pushed at his mind to try to get more information. This was a new thing I learned I could do. I was not well practiced with it. Loki's mind sent a sharp pain through my head, sending me back. Blinking a few times, I looked to Loki. He glared at me before Thor spoke again. Thor walked after Loki.

"We were raised together. We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?"

"I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!" Someone has family problems, I thought to myself. Then again, I wasn't one to talk. My own family was a bit messed up. I sent a beam of energy into the air, letting Stark and Steve know where we were. I knew they were coming after us.

"So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No, the earth is under my protection, Loki," Thor said. His voice wavered. Loki had hit yet another nerve, he just laughed.

"And you're doing a marvelous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them. That's why I should not…"

"Think yourself above them?" Thor's eyes narrowed, I walked silently behind them. I had a feeling Thor had all but forgotten about my presence.

"Well, yes." Loki said calmly.

"Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill." Loki's face twisted as he shoved past Thor, sending a look to me. His fury was rising inside of him, I could see it. Thor took notice in me and looked to Loki, then back to me. "Lady…"

"Claire," I responded, giving him a slight nod and soft smile.

"I've seen worlds you've never known about," Loki yelled again. "I have grown, Odin's son, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract. And when I wield it…"

"Who showed you this power?" Thor spoke, forgetting about me, again. I was listening intently to Loki this time. "Who controls the would be king?"

"I am a king!" Loki screamed.

"Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!" Thor matched Loki's tone. He was gently shaking Loki's shoulders. In a softer voice, he added. "You come home."

"I don't have it," Loki shook his head and chuckled as he attempted to pull from Thor's grasp. Thor's hammer flew to his hand, making me jump slightly. "You need the cube to bring me home, but I've sent it off. I know not where."

"You listen well, brother," Thor started to speak. Suddenly, a flash of red and gold from Tony's suit hit Thor. This sent them both of the cliff side, leaving me alone with Loki. The rockets in the bottom of Tony's suit left lights dancing in my eyes.

"I'm listening!" Loki laughed, then looked at me. Mischief shown in his eyes. "Claire, isn't it?"

"Yes," I said, getting ready for another fight with Loki. He stepped closer, hands up like he was giving in. I could hear the faint sounds of fighting below us.

"You are interesting, surely you are not of Earth?" He spoke, coming even closer to me. He was looking at me like I might have belonged in a museum.

"You stay right there," I replied, producing a pair of cuffs again. I purposely ignored his question. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, a voice screamed at me to ask about Clint. I ignored the voice and started securing Loki. As soon as I got the cuffs back on Loki, a deafening noise rang out through the area, shaking the ground Loki and I were on. I looked around, sending another beam of light into the air, letting Natasha know where we were this time.

Steve POV:

I had just grabbed my shield from the seat beside me when Tony Stark opened the rear entrance of the jet. He had made the decision, without discussion, to do this. I disagreed with his actions. Suddenly, a large, blonde man flew in. He was wearing a red cape and gold and silver armor. A second felt like a lifetime as the strange man and I locked eyes. He reached for Loki, grabbing him from his seat. Loki then wrapped an arm around Claire. I lunged forward, trying to grab for her hand. She was gone before I could blink, as was Loki and the stranger. A scream ripped through the air. It was Claire's.

"Now there's that guy," Stark spoke.

"Another Asgardian?" Natasha spoke from the pilot's seat. She glanced over the seat back. Worry instantly filled her voice as she asked, "Where's Claire?"

"Think the guy's a friendly?" I asked, strapping my shield into place.

"Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki, or kills him, the Tesseract's lost," Stark shrugged in his metal suit. Stark moved closer to the jet's opening to the sky. "And they now have Claire."

"Stark, we need a plan of attack!"

"I have a plan." Stark replied. "Attack!" As Natasha turned around again, Tony had jumped from the jet, relying on his metal suit to carry him.

"I'd sit this one out, Cap," Natasha spoke up. Her eyes were filled with worry for Claire.

"I don't see how I can."

"These guys come from legends, they're basically Gods," She replied as I grabbed a parachute and strapped it on as well.

"There's only one God, Ma'am," I looked to her. "And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

"Get her back, Cap," Natasha added before I jumped from the jet.

Claire POV:

Together, Natasha and I loaded Loki back into the jet and went to find Thor, Steve and Tony. We found them in a clearing. I had a strong gut feeling that the clearing was not there before Thor arrived. Once we found them, we made our way back to the helicarrier again. Steve was next to me, looking over my arms and head for injuries.

"Are you alright?" He fussed as he turned my arms in his hands. His touch was gentle and I smiled slightly to him.

"I'm okay, Steve." I assured him, taking his helmet off for him. I wiped at a bit of dirt on his chin. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good," he smiled. I caught Tony rolling his eyes from the corner of my vision.

"Are you going to ask if I'm okay?" He joked. I smiled slightly.

"Are you okay, Mr. Stark? Any injuries?" I mocked him. He clutched at his heart playfully. I stood up and walked to him, pretending to check him over for injuries.

"You sarcasm wounds me, Claire."

"I'm sure you'll be okay. Your obnoxious suit protects you," I quipped, leaning back in my seat. Thor and Loki seemed to be staring harshly at one another. "Thor, do you have any injuries?"

"No, Lady Claire," Thor spoke, looking to me. I nodded and sat back down, laying my head back on the seat.

As soon as the jet landed on the carrier's landing strip, a group of armed guards in black surrounded it. They took Loki from our custody, leaving us alone to walk inside. I glanced to the rest of the group, sighing. I knew that Fury would want us in the debriefing room, but I just wanted to shower and eat. I could feel my energy dropping. Together, we walked to the room, Steve and I taking the rear of the group.

"After debriefing, I'll walk you to the med-bay, if you'd like?" Steve offered. I weakly smiled to him, shaking my head.

"I don't need to go," I responded. "Besides, I'm sure you're tired."

"No, you will go," Natasha spoke to us, not looking back. I let out a small sigh and nodded.


	5. Chapter 5

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.** **…**

 **Claire POV:**

We walked in almost silence to the debriefing room. The only sound was our footsteps in the hallway until we reached Dr. Banner's lab. Natasha stepped inside and started to talk to Dr. Banner, persuading him to come to the meeting. The way she spoke to him reminded me of the way that Clint speaks to Laura. I gave him a soft smile as he looked towards me. I glanced to Natasha, giving her a look that meant 'we would talk later'.

"Claire, you're hurt," he said, moving over to me. I sighed and nodded a little. Everyone seemed concerned with my well-being, but not their own.

"I'm going to the med-bay after the meeting," I assured him. In the short time that I had known him, he became like a father to me. Lord knows he was more of a father than mine ever was. I pushed the thought of my father from my mind, not wanting to think about it.

Our small group continued down the hallway, passing the room that Loki was contained in. From the outside, it looked as if Fury was giving Loki a stern talking to. I looked at the containment center Loki was in and bit my lip. I winced slightly at the pain from my busted lip. This was designed for Dr. Banner, should he lose control, not for Loki. My heart sunk a little and I glanced to Dr. Banner. Deep inside of me, I knew that he wouldn't purposely lose control.

Together, Steve, Natasha, Thor, Dr. Banner, and I gathered around a table in the room. Dr. Banner and Thor chose to stand, Natasha and I sat. Steve was pacing around the room slowly. Waiting for Fury to finish with Loki. Natasha was sitting by an electronic notebook watching a feed from the room.

"Ant." Fury paused. "Boot." I leaned into Natasha's side to watch the feed, not having a tablet of my own to watch on.

"It's an impressive cage," Loki laughed. He looked directly into the security camera. He knew we were watching. "Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you," Fury replied. Natasha glanced to Dr. Banner, giving him an apologetic look. I furrowed my brows, frowning, and continued to watch Fury and Loki.

"Oh, I've heard," Loki replied smoothly. He continued to stare at the camera, giving me chills on my arms. I rubbed them away quickly. Steve glanced to me, frowning, before turning back to the feed. "The mindless beast, makes play to be the man." Dr. Banner crossed his arms over his chest. He knew that the comment was directed at him. I looked up at Dr. Banner, as did Natasha again.

"That's not true," I spoke softly to him. He gave me a small smile and I returned it.

"How desperate are you?" Loki toyed with Fury again. I bit my lip, waiting for what Loki would say next. I prayed it wasn't a jab at me. I don't know that I would be as calm as Dr. Banner was about it. "You call on such lost creatures to defend you."

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did," Fury responded, walking towards Loki. My brows furrowed again and I shifted in my seat.

"Ooh," Loki hissed out softly. "It burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all of mankind to share, and then to be reminded of what real power is?"

At this point, Loki was no longer looking at the security camera, which I was thankful for. I could hear the venom is his voice though. He made me nervous, for a reason I couldn't explain. I knew he was capable of horrible things, but he spoke like he knew something we didn't. Fury took a few steps away from Loki's cell, nodding slightly. He started to walk out of the room as he spoke again. "Well let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something."

I pulled my gaze from the screen as Dr. Banner spoke again, almost laughing. My mouth dropped some, I could not believe that he was laughing in this situation. "He really grows on you, doesn't he?"

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve spoke, leaning back in his chair and looking at us. He instantly took control and no one stopped him.

"He has an army called the Chitauri, they're not of Asgard nor any world know. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Thor's voice was soft, like he didn't want to believe what was happening. Maria walked up behind Thor, watching us interact.

"An army, from outer-space?" Steve questioned, glancing around.

"Aliens, lovely," I commented with a small laugh, earning a harsh glare from Natasha. I shrugged and spoke again. "It's what everyone is thinking, Tasha."

"So, he's building another portal? That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Dr. Banner spoke up, ignoring me. I looked to him, almost able to see the gears spinning in his head as he pieced everything together.

"Selvig?" Thor's eyes narrowed.

"He's an astrophysicist," Dr. Banner nodded.

"He's a friend," Thor shook his head, looking down for a moment until Natasha spoke. I assumed he had met Selvig in New Mexico during his first trip to Earth.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with…one of ours," She paused, her voice wavered. She wanted to say Clint, but I was thankful she didn't. I looked down, taking deep breathes, trying not to cry. Pulling my knees to my chest in the chair, I looked to Steve as he spoke.

"I want to know why Loki let us take him," Steve pulled the conversation away from Clint. "He's not leading an army from here."

"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him," Dr. Banner spoke up, trying to lighten the mood some. He was right though. I didn't think Loki was our number one priority. Thor took a few steps closer to the table.

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother," Thor put a hand on the table, leaning forward. His eyes had darkened slightly. Frankly, I thought he was acting the way a protective big brother would act.

"He killed eighty people in two days," Natasha said dully, looking through her eyelashes at Thor.

"He's adopted," Thor shrugged slightly. It was in this moment that I felt bad for Thor. Not only did he have to accept the fact the Loki was a monster, but he would also have the break the news to his parents.

"I was too, but you don't see me killing people," I spoke up, looking at Thor. "There's got to be something else fueling his rage."

Suddenly, every head in the room was focused on me. I shrugged, looking around. Tasha's blue eyes bore into the side of my head and I turned to look at her. I gave her a look that said 'later'. Bruce and Steve were both looking at me with sympathy. Bruce's eyes were soft, as if he understood. Steve's eyes were nothing but sadness. Thor frowned, his brows furrowing and nodded some.

"I think it's about the mechanics," Bruce spoke again, taking his glasses off to clean. He put them back on before speaking again. "Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"

As soon as Bruce got done speaking, Tony Stark walked in with Coulson. "It's a stabilizing agent."

I turned to look at him with everyone else. He finished his conversation with Coulson, something about vacations and flying, and spoke again. "Means, the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD."

"So he won't kill himself trying to get his army through?" I questioned. Tony nodded, then looked to Thor. "That's what he needed Selvig for."

"No hard feelings Point Break, you've got a mean swing." He gently tapped the back of his hand to Thor's arm, almost like a playful hit. Thor looked at him with confusion. "Also, it means that the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."

Tony walked through the meeting area and to the screens by Maria Hill. I frowned and looked to Natasha as he commanded the monitors to be raised. He then suddenly pointed to his right. "That man is playing Gallaga! Thought we wouldn't notice, but we did."

I sighed and rolled my eyes, rubbing my forehead. Steve looked at me with confusion and then to the screen. I shook my head at him, telling him not to question Tony. Tony covered one eye for a second, glancing from screen to screen. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Maria quipped while rolling her eyes as well. She glanced to Tasha and me, looking at us as if asking a silent question of 'why was he here'.

"Sounds exhausting." Tony spoke, turning in circles and tapping on the screens. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs it a power source. A high energy density, something to…kick start the cube."

My eyes followed his hands, noticing a small glint of silver before he touched a machine. I glanced to Tasha, finding myself confused at his words. I made a mental note to confront Tony about the device I knew he had placed. Maria spoke the question that I had on my mind. "When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night," He shrugged. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"

"The packet was pages and pages long, Stark." I looked at him. He nodded and smiled a little. I shook my head again in disbelief.

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked. I could tell that he didn't do the reading either. I honestly thought no one except for Tony and Bruce did the reading.

"He'd have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier," Bruce spoke, furrowing his brows as he thought. He twirled his glasses in his hands. I shifted nervously in my seat.

"Unless," Tony spoke again. "Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well, if he could do that, he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet," Bruce chuckled again.

"What?" I spoke, standing up from my chair. I knew that my brows were furrowed in confusion. I ran my fingers through my hair.

"Finally, someone who speaks English," Tony said, walking over to Bruce, holding out a hand.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve looked at them, then to me. I shrugged as Tony and Bruce shook hands.

"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Tony said as they shook hands. I rolled my eyes, of course Tony would only think of that.

"Thanks," Bruce spoke, glancing away for a second. It was more of a question than a statement though. He was not sure how to react to Tony's statement.

"That's not why he's here, Tony," I spoke, moving around the room. I was starting to get fidgety. It was in that moment that Fury decided to join the meeting.

"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was oping you might join him," He spoke to Tony. This had bad idea written all over it. I hoped I wasn't the only one to see it.

"Let's start with that stick of his," Steve spoke from his chair. I had taken up to pacing the same three steps like Dr. Banner, though on the other side of the table. "It may be magical, but i works an awful lot like a Hydra weapon."

"Because it is," I whispered. The pieces seemed to click into place. Steve looked to me, interested in what I had to say. "Hydra used the Tesseract, Loki's using the Tesseract. It's the same power source."

"I don't know about that," Fury countered, "but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."

Fury might not believe that both Hydra and Loki were using the same weapon, but I knew they were. I found myself staring at Fury. Why would he want to keep that information in the dark? I made a mental note to look up everything I could about the Tesseract as soon as I made it back to my room.

"Monkeys? I do not understand," Thor frowned.

"I do!" Steve exclaimed. His face flushed red as we turned to look at him. "I understood that reference."


	6. Chapter 6

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.** **…**

 **Claire POV:**

"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony spoke, gesturing out the door to Bruce. I rubbed my eyes and stood up from the table.

"Are we done here?" I asked impatiently. Fury gave me a dirty look but nodded. He was starting to get on my nerves, and I on his. This was clear to me, part of me wondered why he even bothered temporarily assigning me to the Avengers team. I took this as my dismissal and left the room. My footsteps were silent in the hallway. Natasha followed first, then Steve, and finally Thor. Natasha's footsteps were light like mine. Steve's footsteps were also quiet, but not as much as mine or Tasha's. Thor's footsteps were heavy and seemed to echo off the walls.

"Are you going to the med bay?" Natasha asked me. I sighed to myself knowing if I didn't go, she would force me. I glanced back before speaking.

"Yes, and then to my room, mom," I joked, grinning to her. She rolled her blue-green eyes at me. I glanced back at her, laughing a little at the on-going joke we had together.

"If Clint isn't here to take care of you, who will?" She snapped playfully before turning off into the hallway that lead to the cafeteria. She would never admit it, but she ate constantly.

"Claire, do you mind if I walk you to the medical bay?" Steve asked shyly. I smiled softly at him.

"Sure," I replied. I paused for a moment before speaking again. "You were really great out there."

"Thanks," He blushed soft pink. He looked adorable when he blushed. No, Claire, don't think about that. "I didn't know you could do that stuff that you did out there."

"Yea," I nodded, looking down as we walked. I focused on the laces of my boots. Brown, dirty, coming untied.

"I'd still like to know what it was that you did," Steve ducked his head down some to get a better look at my face. When I didn't look up at him, he gently pulled my chin up with his hand. "Maybe you can tell me after dinner?"

"Sure," I nodded and shrugged. "I guess if I'm on the team, you need to know."

"Claire, it's not like that," Steve spoke quickly. He was backtracking. "I want you to tell me because you want me to know. Not because you think that I have to know."

I stopped in front of the doors to the med bay. I mentally yelled at myself for even thinking that Captain Steven G. Rogers was good looking. Looking up at Steve, I smiled softly and lied. "I want you to know. Guess this is my stop. Thank you for the walk, Steve."

Quickly, I ducked into the med bay before he could say anything else. I felt bad about lying to him. I did not want him to know, but he deserved to as we were going to be on the same team. He stood at the door for a moment more, mouth open like he didn't know what just happened, before waving through the glass and walking away. A nurse ordered me to sit while he ran tests and got the doctor. After having countless flashlight pens shone in my face, I was allowed to leave with an extra strength aspirin to take with dinner. The doctor found no signs of trauma (other than a few bruises), so I was able to leave with a nearly clean bill of health. I almost skipped back to my room knowing that Natasha and Steve worried for no reason. Once in my room, I pulled my clothes off; they stuck to me like a second skin. The shower was burning hot when I stepped into the spray of water. It massaged my muscles and scalded my skin. After massaging a generous amount of shampoo and conditioner into my hair, I scrubbed my face and body. With a scowl, I finished my shower and stepped out to dry myself off. The air hit me like a snowball and I quickly dressed. After dressing again, I decided to go find Dr. Banner and Tony to see if they made any headway.

When I finally made it to the lab, I found not only Bruce and Tony, but Steve as well. They looked like they were arguing and I frowned to myself. We would never be a team at this rate, not with all the bickering.

"You're tiptoeing, Big Man. You need to strut," Tony spoke. I shook my head, peeking into the room.

"Knock, knock," I spoke up. "Please don't strut, I don't think my eyes could handle it, Tony." My joke caused both Steve and Bruce to chuckle. I smiled and leaned against a counter by Steve. Tony narrowed his eyes at me, before turning back to Steve.

"Not me!" Tony exclaimed. He pointed to Bruce, "Him!"

"No offense Bruce, but I don't want to see you strut either," I admitted, leaning against a table by Steve.

"You just want to see Capsicle, don't you?" Tony teased. I opened my mouth to give him a smart ass reply, but Steve cut me off.

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve scolded.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables," Tony spoke, grabbing a silver wrapped package from a table behind Bruce.

"He does have a point, Steve," I spoke, looking up at him.

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve raised his eyebrow, looking between me and Tony.

"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," Tony countered. I nodded a little.

"Fury wouldn't have brought me in for just a missing person, even if it is my brother. Something bigger is about to happen, I can feel it," I defended Tony. Tony popped food into his mouth before he spoke again.

"It's bugging him too, isn't it," He pointed to Bruce, talking with his mouth full. I rolled my eyes, picked up a pen and threw it at Tony.

"We aren't children, close your mouth when you talk," I scoffed. Tony stuck it tongue out at me before Bruce spoke.

"Uh… I just wanna finish my work here and…" Bruce stammered, not meeting anyone's eyes. I raised my eyebrow, glancing to Steve.

"Doctor," Steve questioned.

"'A warm light for all mankind to share', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," Bruce spoke. He took off his glasses halfway through his sentence, rubbing them clean with his shirt. He still refused to meet anyone's eyes. A frown crept onto my lips.

"I heard it. We all heard it," Steve's eyes narrowed a little. He looked like he was trying to figure everything out. I pursued my lips in the frown and looked back to Bruce. He gestured to Tony before continuing.

"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news." Tony held the package of food out to me as Bruce spoke. Curiosity got the better of me and I glanced to see what he was eating. Shrugging, I let him roll a few dried blueberries into my palm and then looked to Bruce. Tony then held the package out to Bruce, who took some of the snack as well.

"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…building in New York?" Steve trailed off slightly as Tony gave him a stern look. I nodded a little, piecing the puzzle together.

"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Bruce continued, looking at Tony. He started to fiddle with his watch.

"That's just the prototype," Tony shrugged. He was bragging about himself, I rolled my eyes. It was a very Tony-like thing to do. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."

"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce gestured to Tony again. He had a point, I rubbed my temples as my head started to pound. I just wanted to eat and go to bed. Steve looked as if he was confused and trying to put the pieces together as well. He wasn't getting as far as I was. Upon seeing my temple rubs, Steve laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. His hand was gone almost instantly as Tony and Bruce looked back to us. "I mean, What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"

"You're right," I frowned, biting my lip. "If SHIELD wanted energy, they would go to the source, AKA Tony. Unless, they wanted to keep it a secret, which is the opposite of Tony. Then that brings up the question of why."

"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony shrugged casually.

"I'm sorry, did you say…?" Steve's eyes widened. I snapped my head towards Tony.

"What?" I nearly growled. Instantly, my mood shifted from putting up with Tony, to disliking him. I did not want Tony to know everything that Fury knew about me.

"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide," Tony spoke like he had just won first place at a science fair. Casually, Tony held the package of dried fruit out to Steve. "Blueberry?"

"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve spoke, his back straight. He didn't even give Tony a reply.

"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not possible," Tony argued. Steve rolled his eyes and turned his head away for a moment. This was something I had seen Clint do many times before. Mostly before he lost his temper.

"I get where you're coming from, Tony, but this is not the way to do it. Some of the things Fury keeps from us…" I trailed off. I was trying to reason as I stepped between Steve and Tony. I could feel a fight coming along. Bruce was staying quiet, suddenly finding interest in the pen in his right hand and his glasses in his left hand. I contemplated the best way to end the sentence I had started. "Is for the best. Will you just trust me on this one, Tony?"

"Like you're one to talk! You and Fury butt heads at every turn. I would have assumed that you would have wanted to know all of his secrets." Tony's reply was almost funny. I felt Steve's warm hand brush against my shoulder blades.

"Why do you want to know them so badly?" I questioned, my own temperature rising. I forced myself to take a deep breath and try to stay calm.

"Why _don_ _'_ _t_ you want me to know them?" Tony raised his own voice to meet mine.

"I don't need you, or anyone else for that matter, to know my life story! Clint's family adopted a freak, okay? Leave it at that!" I yelled. My eyes burned with unshed tears. Steve set a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. I sighed louder than I would have liked to and hung my head. I couldn't face any of them. It took all my willpower not to cry.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed," Steve spoke calmly, looking between me, Tony, and Bruce. Bruce made eye contact with him and nodded slightly before looking away. He was avoiding my gaze and I was avoiding everyone else's. "We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following is not really my style," Tony shrugged slightly, popping a dried blueberry into his mouth. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve frowned at him. His expression was impatient.

"Of the people in this room, which one is; A: wearing a spangly outfit, and A: not of use?" Tony said in a smart ass tone of voice. As he listed off 'A' and 'B' he counted on his fingers. I glanced up to Steve and then to Bruce as he spoke.

"Steve, Claire, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce questioned. He leaned over the table a little, resting his palms flat on the surface.

"I'm done," I spoke, turning on my heel to leave the room. I was ready to punch Tony Stark in the face. I could hear Steve close behind me.

"Just find the cube," Steve commanded following me out the door. "Claire, wait up, please. I'd like to talk."

I slowed my steps to let him catch up. As soon as he had caught up to me, I began to walk again. Taking a deep breath, I spoke first, "What did you want to talk about?"

"Let's grab a coffee from the Mess Hall and go someplace more private to talk, okay?" He looked down at me, waiting for my reply. I nodded my head, content to walk in silence. Luckily for us, the Mess Hall was close by and, thankfully, empty. Steve grabbed two to-go cups from a stack and handed one to me. He poured himself a black coffee and held it out to me, as if he was offering it to me. With a quick shake of my head, I reached for the hot water I quickly filled mine with water and milk before slowly dunking my tea bag into it. After a sprinkle of sugar, Steve and I began to walk again.

During this walk, Steve took the lead. I followed, completely lost as he twisted down the hallways. He led us to a hallway with a single door at the end. I furrowed my brows, but followed him anyway. Without a word, he punched a few numbers into a key pad and the door slide open. Inside of the room was a love seat and two armchairs to sit in. They were huddled around a small, wooden coffee table. Two tiny shelves rested against the wall in a corner. I looked to Steve, who was watching my reaction.

"What is this place?" I asked, looking around.

"An unfinished work lounge," He answered, sitting in an armchair. I followed his suit and sat in the armchair across from him. "Fury needed the carrier faster than he thought. Some of the rooms were left half-finished."

"Oh," I dumbly answered. I stared at my to-go cup lid, not wanting to face him.

"Claire, I just want to talk, but it takes two to do that," Steve said softly. His tone of voice was calming.

"What do you want to talk about?" I looked up, meeting his eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

 **I am altering the time line just a little as well.**

 **I am aware that Clint Barton was supposed to be an orphan, but for the sake of my story line, I** **'** **m going to pretend that his parents never died.**

…

 **Claire POV:**

Steve's eyes were watching me and I spoke. It seemed to take him a moment to comprehend what I had said. As he spoke, I took a drink of my tea.

"Let's just talk about normal stuff and work our way up," he suggested, taking a sip of his coffee. I shrugged.

"Might as well just get the difficult stuff out of the way, Captain," I spoke plainly. Tony had put me in a bad mood and I was taking it out on him. I felt guilty, but I didn't let it show.

"Well, earlier when I was walking you to the Med Bay, you told me you would tell me what you did in Germany," He started to speak. I took this as my chance and I cut him off.

"Captain. Steve," I tested his name, he nodded for me to continue. "Tony gets underneath my skin. He makes me say things that I don't truly mean."

"Yeah, he tends to have that effect on people," Steve chuckled. I shifted in my chair, pulling my knees up my chest. The tea was warm in my hands.

"When I was little," I started with a sigh, "I was abandoned."

"Claire," Steve started to talk. I held a hand up, telling him to stop. He needed to hear at least part of my story.

"Just listen to me," I spoke, staring at my tea. If I stared hard enough, maybe I could pretend that he wasn't in the same room as me right now. "I was left at an orphanage. My real parents wanted nothing to do with me. Harold and Edith Barton could not have anymore children after Clint was born. However, they desperately wanted a little girl. They ended up adopting me, out of all the other children. I was lucky, I guess. Clint was the only person I would talk to for weeks."

"That's normal, Claire. You were young, afraid," Steve tried to comfort me.

"When Fury recruited Clint years later, he heard about me. Specifically, he heard about what I could do. Clint nearly begged him not to recruit me, but he didn't listen. I went through weeks of testing, of training."

I took a long pause to take a drink of my tea. It was starting to get cold by now and didn't taste like it should have. As I glanced up, I noticed Steve had a pained look in his eyes. I set my tea on the table before continuing.

"That's the short version of the story, anyway. I have a basic understanding of my powers, talents, gifts, whatever you want to call them. There isn't exactly a school I could go to for help."

"Claire, you didn't need to tell me this. Don't think that just because of what Tony said you were obligated to." Steve laid a hand on my knee. He had already given up trying to drink his coffee. I shook my head and looked to him.

"I'm unstable in battle. I sort of know what I'm doing. I am hoping that Fury won't make me go into the battle against Loki. But, you need to know that risk before you decide if you have to take it."

"I think I'd take it anyway," Steve smiled. "Maybe we can help you here with your gifts?"

"You sound like Clint," I spoke, looking up at him. "I hurt him once. He was trying to help me and I sent him to the Med Bay."

"That comes with learning."

"I'm going to get some dinner and go to bed," I said, pushing up from my chair quickly. I was quickly hit with a rush of vertigo, causing me to stumble slightly. I felt guilty about not telling Steve everything I knew about my gifts, but I could not force myself to speak about it. He knew enough already.

"Easy," Steve said softly, picking up our half empty cups and taking my hand in his. "Let me walk you to the cafeteria."

"You really don't have to," I replied, looking over to him.

"I want to." He decided he would not take no for an answer and walked me to the Mess Hall anyway. He stopped by the doors of the cafeteria.

"You go eat dinner and relax, I want to go talk to Fury," He smiled. His voice sounded a bit off. I briefly wondered if he was lying. "I think I see Natasha in there."

"Alright?" I nodded. His stance was tense, his voice nervous. "Are you okay?"

"Of course," He nodded, turning away. He was defiantly lying. I frowned and went to go get dinner. Everyone was starting to act strange on this carrier. I tried not to think too hard on this as I picked up food from the line. I settled on a grilled chicken burger, an apple and some french fries. I could almost hear Clint in the back of my mind telling me I needed to eat better. I walked up to Natasha's side. "Is this spot taken?"

"For you, never," she grinned up at me and patted the seat. "How are you feeling?"

"Physically, good. Mentally, exhausted. Emotionally, confused," I sighed and took a bite.

"Wanna talk?" She suggested, pushing her tray forward. She turned to face me and I took another bite and nodded my head.

"I just wish that Clint was here," I said. "Then I wouldn't have been called in on this crazy mission."

"Claire," Natasha started.

"I mean, Fury called me in, but I don't even know how to use my powers," I whispered to her, not wanting everyone to over hear.

"Fury wouldn't have called you if he didn't think you could do it," She whispered back. "We'll get Clint back soon, I promise."

"If you say so," I said after taking another bite.

"What's got you emotionally confused?"

"This entire team," I shrugged. "Bruce is quiet, smart. Steve is confident, commanding. You're powerful and take no shit. Thor is impossible to understand. Tony's… well, he's Tony. We are dysfunctional."

"I have a feeling we will be able to come together," Natasha said with a smile. "Just give us a few more days."

"We might not have a few more days, Natasha," I frowned, dumping my trash. "I'm going to go to bed. I'm tired."

"Alright," Natasha sighed. I exited the cafeteria and walked to my room. I knew that we would not become a team in time for Loki to finish his plan. Maybe this is what he wanted. My room was warm when I entered and I quickly plopped down on the bed. It was soft and I found myself falling asleep almost instantly.

"I knew I could find you here sooner or later, Claire Barton," a dark voice spoke from the shadows of my dream. I was standing in the center of a spotlight, the light blinding my eyes if I dared to look up. A circle of darkness surrounding me.

"Who are you? Where are you?" I asked, turning in circles. This dream was like other I had before.

"You know who I am," the voice spoke again. I twisted around again before landing my eyes on Loki. He was dressed casually, not in the armor that I had seen him in before. I turned to face him, squaring my shoulders.

"Why are you here, Loki?" My voice wavered.

"Your brother told me you were special. He mentioned that I could find you here, in this middle ground," Loki taunted. "Only after we met here once before."

I stepped back from him as he stepped closer to me. My brows furrowed before I realized he was talking about my first nightmare on the carrier. I watched him as I spoke. "You caused my first nightmare here."

"Very good, child," Loki laughed. "Although, you were not supposed to see or hear what you did during that are very special."

"What is your plan, Loki? To invade my dreams? Scare me?"

"No. Claire, I want to help you. I can help you control your gifts. I can teach you how to use them." Loki's voice was smooth, it had an undertone of seduction.

"No," I shook my head. "I don't want _your_ help. Your mind games won't work on me, Loki."

"You could rule at my side, Claire. Think of it, King Loki and Queen Claire," He invited. I bit my lip. It was tempting. He was tempting. "No one would dare to call you a freak again."

Memories of grade school flashed into my vision, the other students calling me a freak, getting into fights, the landlord kicking me out from an apartment for having my gifts. Loki had a point, no one would ever defy me again. I could live freely. He is skilled in magic and could teach me how to control it. I looked up at him.

"You…you would teach me?" I whispered, my voice cracked.

"Of course," Loki enticed, putting his arm around my shoulder. He waved a faintly glowing green hand down towards the floor. My tank top and shorts changed instantly, along with his clothing. He was now dressed in his armor. I wore a short, dark green skirt with a slit up to the thigh with black spandex like material underneath it. A short sleeve green shirt was underneath a silver breast plate that extended down to my hips. A green cape matching Loki's rested on my shoulders. I looked like a warrior I had only seen in books and movies. "Can you not see us ruling together? You were made to rule, Claire. These humans do not give you the credit you deserve."

"I…" I trailed off, looking down at myself. With a shake of my head, I pulled away from Loki. The illusion of the battle clothes disappeared. He was trying to turn me against the team. "I am nothing like you."

"You are though. We both live in our brothers shadows, Claire."

"No!" I yelled.

"Claire!" Natasha's voice pulled me roughly from the dream. I woke up panting, covered in sweat. My blanket was in a knotted mess at my feet. "You're alright, I'm here."

"Claire?" Steve spoke from the doorway. I looked up at him, then to Natasha.

"Loki," I swallowed thickly. "Loki was in my dream"

"How?" Steve asked, sitting on the bed beside me. I ran my hands through my hair, tugging harshly.

"Claire dream walks sometimes," Natasha spoke for me. She rubbed small circles on my back, letting me lean against her.

"Dream walks? I don't understand," Steve looked confused. He laid a hand on my knee.

"When I sleep, my mind wanders. Sometimes, I end up in other people's dreams. Other people," I took a deep breath, "end up in mine."

"So, you walked into Loki's dream?" Steve frowned, trying to understand. Natasha got up for a glass of water for me.

"No," I took the glass from Natasha and took a drink. "Loki walked into mine."

"What did he tell you?" Natasha spoke, looking at me with concern in her eyes.

"He said that Clint told him I dream walk. He told me he could help me learn to control my gifts. Loki said we could rule together." My voice trailed off at the last sentence. I ducked my head down, avoiding their eyes. "He said we were the same."

"You are not the same, Claire," Steve spoke, his voice stern. I heard footsteps at the doorway pause for a second, then come into the room.

"Another nightmare, Claire?" I heard Bruce speak. I nodded a little in my knees that I had pulled up to my chest.

"I brought you something to help you sleep, if you'd like it?"

"Thank you, Bruce," I looked up, taking the drink from his hands. It was warm in my own hands, pale brown in color.

"Not a problem, Claire." He smiled and nodded, exiting the room. Natasha followed him.

"I'm sorry I woke you," I spoke to Steve, looking up at him.

"Don't be sorry," Steve said, sliding closer to me on the bed. In two drinks, I finished the liquid in the cup. It tasted like chocolate and something else. The chocolate was masking the flavor of something bitter. I gave him a small smile and flopped back onto my bed.

"I wish I was normal for once."

"Well, if you were 'normal', I probably wouldn't have met you," He whispered, looking down at me.

"And that's a bad thing?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Claire, you are more special than you give yourself credit for."

"He's right, Claire," Natasha said, scaring me. I hadn't realized that she had walked back into the room. "You should get some sleep."

Natasha hugged me and whispered into my ear that it was going to be okay. Steve gave me a hug as well, whispering into my ear that he hoped I had good dreams for the rest of the night. I felt my face heat up.

Thankfully, I didn't have anymore dreams that involved Loki. However, I didn't sleep easily. At around 6am, I got up from the bed and showered again. I avoided breakfast all together and started towards Bruce's lab. Something told me that he would be in there, despite the hour.


	8. Chapter 8

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

 **Claire POV:**

The walk to Bruce's lab was quiet. There were very few agents in the hallways. I assumed they were still sleeping. As I rounded the corner, I could see a faint glow coming from Bruce's lab. Like I had thought, he was inside. He sat at a desk, hunched over, wearing the same shirt from the day before. His hair looked as if he ran his hands through it countless times over the night. I gave a gentle knock on the door.

"Mind if I come in?" I asked. He looked up from the paperwork and journal at his desk to me. His face held an imprint from his glasses. "Bruce, did you sleep here?"

"I couldn't go back to bed after your nightmare," He spoke softly, leaning back. Guilt washed over me. It was my fault that he couldn't sleep.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. Looking down I spoke again, "I can go?"

"No, don't," he sighed. "It wasn't you. I just couldn't get back to bed. Between Tony trying to hack Fury's systems, Loki's scepter, your nightmare…I've had a lot on my mind."

"I understand that." I moved to the desk beside his and pulled myself up on it to sit. My legs hung off the side of the desk, my feet dangling far above the ground. Sometimes, it sucked being short. "Loki has got everyone on edge, even Natasha."

"Fury asked Natasha to go visit Loki in his cell after breakfast." Bruce looked up at me as he spoke. Something told me that he didn't want me to know, but told me anyway. I felt my breath get caught in my throat.

"Why?" My voice cracked.

"He thinks that Natasha can get some information out of him. After the stunt he pulled with you last night, Natasha went straight to Fury. He wants to know Loki's plan," Bruce explained. I frowned and nodded. Why would Fury make Natasha do that? I rubbed my forehead and watched Bruce pour over his notes. I gave the clock a quick glance, it was almost breakfast time.

"Do you want anything for breakfast, Bruce? I'd be happy to go get you something," I offered. I needed to talk to Natasha before she talked to Loki. However, I did not want to seem rude and run out of Bruce's office.

"Some coffee would be great, actually," Bruce grinned. I smiled and nodded.

"Sure, how do you take it?"

"Black," He spoke, moving to another machine. I saw his face light up at his new discovery. I nodded and moved out of the door, quickly running to the cafeteria. Along the way, I bumped into multiple people and shouted sorry's.

"Natasha!" I yelled, catching her as she left the cafeteria.

"What's wrong, Claire?" She asked, concerned. I shook my head.

"Be careful when you go see Loki," I whispered. In my mind I urged her to be careful, I couldn't lose her. I chanted 'careful' over and over again, hoping to imprint it in her mind. "He's dangerous, really dangerous."

"I know, Claire. I'm always careful," She gave me a small smile and walked away. Hopefully, it worked, but I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I grabbed Bruce a coffee and a breakfast sandwich just in case and trudged back to his lab. Something felt off.

"I brought you an egg and cheese on an English muffin, if you want it." I handed the bag and coffee to Bruce and sat at a monitor. "Can I turn Loki's feed on in here?"

"Of course, here." Bruce typed a few things into his own computer and suddenly Loki's security camera was streaming to my computer. Eat, eat, eat, I thought over and over again. I nodded and smiled, watching him take a bite of food. I sighed a breath of relief. Looks like I hadn't lost my touch after all. As I turned back to the screen, I noticed Natasha standing at the side of Loki's cell. Loki grinned and turned towards her.

"There's not many people that can sneak up on me," His voice was soft. He slowly started to walk to her.

"But you figured I'd come," Natasha replied.

"After… After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm…You or Claire," Loki taunted. He continued his slow saunter towards the glass wall of his cell. "And I would cooperate. Perhaps if Claire had come, I would cooperate more."

"I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton," Natasha's voice was calm.

"Which one?" He laughed. Natasha clenched her jaw. I frowned, he was trying to toy with both Clint and I. Loki's voice was calm. I barely noticed that Tony walked in, I was too focused on the screen. "Oh, him. I'd say I've expanded his mind."

"And once you've won? Once you're king of the mountain?" Natasha took a few steps towards Loki's cell. I bit my lip and took a deep breath. Bruce was half working, half listening to the feed. "What happens to his mind?"

"Is this love, Agent Romanoff?" Loki nodded his head slightly. I could tell that he was thinking hard.

"Love is for children. I owe him a debt." This was not a complete lie, she did owe Clint a favor. However, she cared for his family and me like we were her own family. She did love us, in our own way.

"Tell me." Loki's voice was still calm. He was consistent, I'll give him that. He stepped back a little in his cell. Natasha crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head slightly. She let out a sigh before she spoke.

"Before I worked for SHIELD, I uh…" She moved to sit down in the chair in front of the cell. "Well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call." Both of them were sitting down, staring at each other. I remembered the day that Clint got the mission to kill Natasha. I remember him bringing her in, I thought he was crazy.

"And what will you do if I vow to spare him?"

"Not let you out." Loki chuckled slightly.

"Ah, no. What would Claire do though?" He chuckled slightly. I clenched my fists together and shifted uneasily in my seat. He leaned forward with a sinister grin on his face. "But I like this. Your world in the balance, and you bargain for one man?"

"Regime's fall everyday. I tend not to weep over that, I'm Russian, or I was." She shrugged like it was not a big deal.

"And what are you now?"

"It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out," She stood as she spoke, crossing her arms again. I have seen her use this interrogation technique once before. She had taught me how to perfect it even. However, Loki made me uneasy.

"Can you? Can you wipe out that much red?" Loki questioned. I frowned, sensing where this was going. He slowly moved to stand up. "Drakoff's daughter? Sao Paulo? The hospital file? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping, it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?"

Natasha's eyes widened and she took a few deep breathes in. He must have all of Clint's secrets. No wonder he came after me. After me and Natasha, I wondered who he would try to play with.

"This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer. Pathetic!" He was standing at the glass again. "You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away."

Loki slammed his fist on the glass, causing Natasha to jump. I jumped in my own seat.

"I won't barter Barton! Not until I make him kill you. Slowly, intimately, in every way he knows you fear. And then he'll wake just long enough to see his good work, and when he screams I'll split his skull!"

Natasha turned away from him quickly. I took a deep breath in and covered my mouth with my hand. Breakfast felt like it was going to come back up.

"Then, I will have little Claire to myself," He nearly growled. I felt my stomach sink. "This is my bargain, you mewling quim!"

"You're a monster." Natasha sounded as if she was crying. Her face was turned away from the camera so I could not see.

"Oh, no," he laughed. I had always thought that people who are crazy only laughed in the movie. This proved that theory wrong. The way Loki laughed sent chills up my spin. "You brought the monster."

"So, Banner? That's your play?" Natasha turned around to face him again. Her face was dry of tears. She had faked it. It didn't help my stomach any.

"What?" Loki was confused.

"Loki means to unleash the Hulk," Natasha spoke into her earpiece. She immediately moved away and started out the door. I glanced towards Bruce, then back to the screen. "Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well."

She turned to face him, Loki was confused.

"Thank you, for your cooperation," She said politely. I sat back in my chair trying to process everything that had just happened. My mind was racing, as well as my heartbeat.

"He's not going to get to you," Tony spoke up, making me jump. I turned to face him, brushing my hair from my face. "I heard about your nightmare last night. Don't worry, kid, I won't let him hurt you or Legolas."

I gave Tony a small smile and nodded. Giving myself a momentary distraction, I took my hair down and then put it up again in a Dutch braid. I had just shut the laptop screen off when Fury walked in. His black coat swishing behind him. I looked up at him, certain I was going to get in trouble for watching the feed.

"What are you doing, Mr. Stark?" He walked to stand on the other side of the work bench, across from Tony.

"Uh…kind of been wondering the same thing about you," Tony replied. His voice was arrogant.

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract," Fury spoke. His voice was angry, this was not a good sign. I glanced towards Bruce, who was casually standing behind Tony.

"We are, the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce was the one to speak as he pointed to a screen that was locating the cube. I didn't expect Bruce to reply. I frowned and took a deep breath.

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss," Tony shrugged. At that moment, his computer dinged in front of him. 'Phase 2' was written in bold letters across his screen. "What is Phase 2?"

Steve took this opportunity to move into the room and slam a weapon on the table. Metal hitting metal sounded throughout the air. I looked to Steve, confused. Steve spoke up, stepping forward. He did not look happy at all. "Phase 2 is SHIELD used the cube to make weapons. Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

He was glancing between Tony, Bruce, Fury and me. I stood up from my chair slowly, as if not to disturb anyone. Fury started to walk towards Steve. He was trying to defend himself from the evidence Steve and Tony had just found.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…" Fury was cut off by Tony.

"I'm sorry, Nick," Tony cut him off. "What were you lying?"

"You know the Tesseract is dangerous, why try to control it?" I asked, moving to look at Tony's screen. Steve looked to me, he was watching me closely. There were hundreds of files on blueprints of weapons.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit," Steve said as Thor and Natasha walked into the room. I looked to Natasha, she held up a hand to me. I frowned and stepped back. Pressure was building in this room, I could feel it. The hair on my arms stood up straight.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce motioned with his glasses to Natasha, then to me. I shook my head quickly.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha supplied. I frowned, this was not like her. Bruce just laughed a little.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you," Natasha spoke calmly, stepping closer to Bruce.

"No," I replied. "Loki is manipulating all of us."

"My brother…" Thor began to speak.

"Your brother," I cut him off. I was angry now. "Your brother is not a good guy, no matter how you argue it. He has brainwashed people. He has killed people. He has tried to turn me against my own team. He is playing all of us."

"Claire…" Steve warned. I took a deep breath to calm myself. As I looked around the room, I noticed some of the smaller items hovering above their stations. When I calmed down, they dropped back into place.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce directed his comment more towards Natasha and I, than to anyone else.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha said, walking towards Bruce. Fury rolled his eyes, he looked uncomfortable as well.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy." Bruce took a few steps towards the computer screen and reached for it. He motioned at it with his glasses. "I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury replied, pointing towards Thor.


	9. Chapter 9

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire** **'** **s point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

 **Chiara POV:**

How could Fury blame this mess on Thor? It didn't make sense. Nothing seemed to make sense on this carrier. We had a soldier from the 1940s, an ex-Russian assassin, a man who turned into a giant green "rage monster" - as Tony says, one god bent on world domination, one god on the good side, Fury, and a waitress with freaky abilities. No amount of preparation could have prepared me for this. I don't think that anyone could prepare for this.

"Me?" Thor asked innocently. His arms crossed over his chest.

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out gunned," Fury spoke as he moved to the middle of us. We were all standing in a circle like pattern. Tony leaning causally against the counter, Bruce by a computer, Steve in a defensive stance, Thor standing straight, and Natasha watching us all intently. I took a small step backwards so I could see everyone. Fury did have a point, but I would never let him know that. What happened in the western United States was not a reason to build weapons of this degree.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," he argued. Fury turned to face him.

"Except Loki," I spoke. I opened my mouth to speak again and Fury cut me off.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. " He questioned. My stomach felt uneasy and I shifted my weight back and forth. This was going downhill fast. He turned from Thor to Tony as he spoke. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve questioned as he took a small step forward. Tension was rising in the room, I could feel it. Steve glanced towards me, then back to Fury.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor said seriously, he moved forward towards Fury and Steve. His jaw was clenched and he looked angry. Steve was eyeing Thor, then Fury.

"We should take this conversation elsewhere," I attempted to speak. This tension was not good for anyone, especially Bruce who was looking a little green. Natasha glanced over to me and shook her head. I knew the conversation was not going anywhere and so did she.

"A higher form?" Steve spoke. His voice was tight.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something-"

"A nuclear deterrent, cause that always calms everything right down," Tony's voice was sarcastic. Fury did not like being cut off by Tony. There were too many men in the same room fighting for the top dog position. Bruce did not seem to be trying to join in on this fight. I glanced to Natasha, who was watching the scene.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury turned to Tony.

"Guys," I started to talk again.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep…" Steve started. I sighed and moved between Steve and Tony. Tony cut Steve off and started to speak again.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" He said as he stepped forward, holding out his hand.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve said calmly, twisting just enough to see him. His hands were folded and resting at his hips. He looked calm, but I could tell he was angry. I rubbed my forehead with one hand, using my other to lean against the counter top.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor spoke, uncrossing his arms and taking a step towards Fury. I moved between Steve and Tony silently, keeping one hand on a counter. I felt dizzy.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury questioned Thor, turning to face him. Fury, Steve, Tony, and Thor all started to talk at the same time. Bruce looked thoughtful in the corner and Natasha placed a hand on her gun as she started to speak as well. After Natasha joined in the argument, Bruce did as well. All the arguing was giving me a bigger headache than before.

"Verbal threat, verbal threat! I feel threatened!" Tony spoke slightly louder than before. Steve was giving him a stern talking to. This was not good for the team in any way. Natasha stepped near Fury in an attempt to be heard. Bruce was still against the counter.

With a sigh, I brought two fingers to my lips and let out a shrill whistle. The high pitched noise caused everyone to stop arguing and look at me.

"Enough!" I yelled. This caused them to stop arguing and look at me. "Stop arguing! It's not doing any good."

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor almost laughed. I glared over to him.

"It's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos," Bruce spoke. I could almost see the gears turning in his mind. "We're…we're a time-bomb."

"Bruce is right, guys. Can't you see it?" I frowned.

"You need to step away." Fury directed to Bruce as he stepped towards him.

"Why shouldn't they guy let off a little steam?" Tony put his hand on Steve's shoulder. With a quick flick of my wrist, I slapped Tony's arm. He looked down at me with a confused look and I glared up to him.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve's voice was loud. He batted Tony's hand from his shoulder and looked to him with disgust.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me."

"Hey, enough," I said, moving around a little. Neither Steve nor Tony would look at me, even after I attempted to step between them.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve got closer to Tony. They were eye to eye now and I was left standing beside them. I think he was trying to intimidate him, but it was not working.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist…" Tony casually listed off. Tony didn't do anything if he couldn't be casual about it. Natasha gave a small nod of her head and made a face like she agreed with his answer. I shot her a glare. Tony didn't need encouragement.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you," Steve spat. "I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Steve and Tony were having a staring match as Steve spoke. The way he spoke sent shivers up my spine. Fury glanced to me then back to Steve and Tony. His face was surprised. I guess no one had ever heard Captain America speak that way before.

"I think I would just cut the wire." Tony's voice was flat. His expression was also plain. I frowned. Steve's mouth turned into a small smile.

"Always a way out," He said. Steve glanced towards me, then to Bruce, then back to Tony. "You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero, like you?" He said, stepping forward. "You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle."

Tony's words bit into the air. We all fell silent, except for Steve. Although his words were not directed to me, they were like a slap in the face. I watched Steve's face for a reaction. He had none. The tension in the air was pressing against me, I took a step backward.

"Put on the suite, let's go a few rounds," Steve spoke with a slight nod of his head. Thor started to laugh at Tony and Steve. I looked to him quickly, frowning.

"You people are so petty," He laughed. While laughing, he added, "And tiny."

"Yeah, this is a tee…" Bruce started to say, breaking the silence after Thor. Fury decided to cut him off.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his…" Fury trailed off. I swallowed hard, knowing exactly what was going to enter the conversation next. The cell Loki was in. The cell meant for Bruce.

"Where? You're renting my room," Bruce said nodding his head a little. This conversation was getting more and more interesting. I felt a small pressure in my head, like Unconsciously, I clenched my hands into fists to keep them from shaking. Spots swam in my vision and I blinked them away. A faint green light found its way into my line of sight, only to disappear again. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and opened them again. Everything seemed back to normal.

"The cell was just…" Fury tried to cover for his words earlier. I shook my head and looked around the room. I could feel my body swaying slightly and I reached for a counter top again. Steve looked at me, concerned, then to Bruce as he spoke.

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know, I tried." Bruce's voice was shaky. Natasha looked over to me, concerned, then back to Bruce. Everyone was watching Bruce now. He crossed his arms over his chest and continued to speak, to explain. "I got low, I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out."

He waited for us to say something. I was at a loss of words. Natasha's face held a sad expression. When we didn't speak, Bruce did.

"So I moved on, I focused on helping other people. I was good until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk." He was starting to get anxious. His body was moving slightly back and forth. When I glanced to Thor, I noticed that he was clenching and unclenching his hands at his side. Bruce was putting everyone on edge. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Something was not right with Bruce. He was too nervous, not himself. Natasha and Fury must have noticed this because they both put their hands on their guns slowly. Steve took a half step in front of me, sending me a look. I had seen that look before from Clint.

Without a word, I took a half step behind Steve. He was protecting me from the unknown. Everyone knew something was about to happen, just not what exactly that something was. In the few seconds it took everyone to prepare themselves, Bruce picked up Loki's scepter and held it in his hand. I could feel the pull of the scepter. I almost felt jealous that Bruce got to touch it and not me. Quickly, I shook the thought and feeling from my head. It was crazy talk. This had to be Loki's doing. Steve's arm reached behind him and I laid a hand on his forearm to let him know where I was. He relaxed slightly, but was still tense.

"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter." Bruce suddenly looked down, confused at how the scepter had gotten into his hands. I breathed a sigh of relief as he put the scepter back into its cradle and walked to the monitor as they came to life around us. Three of the monitors in the room were beeping. Everyone turned to look at one.

"Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my party trick after all," Bruce said seriously as he walked through the group. Steve looked at me, his expression asking if I was okay. I gave him a small nod and looked to Thor.

"Located the Tesseract?"

"I can get there faster."

"Look, all of us…" Tony, Steve, and Thor spoke at once.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor continued to speak. Tony made a move towards the door. Steve put out his arm and stopped him from leaving.

"You're not going alone!" Deep down, I could see that Steve cared for his team. There was concern in his voice.

"You gonna stop me?" Tony slapped his hand away. I frowned.

"Put on the suit, let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony and Steve were face to face again. Fury moved forward to stand by me.

"Put on the suit."

"Oh, my God…" Bruce's voice was almost too low for me to hear.


	10. Chapter 10

**I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire's point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.**

…

 **Claire POV:**

I opened my mouth to say something, but an explosive blast knocked me backwards and through glass. My ears were ringing and my vision was blurry. The glass was uncomfortable underneath my body. I barely heard Steve speak to Stark. They had to be close, but I didn't know just how close. Their voices were muffled. With a groan, I began to push myself up into a sitting position. Pieces of the glass dug into my palms, there was ringing in my ears and my vision was slightly blurry.

"Claire!" I heard Steve yell. I blinked the spots from my vision and tried to ignore the ringing. "Claire, are you okay?"

I looked up to the ceiling and saw Steve the floor above me. He looked concerned but physically fine. I hadn't fallen too far from Bruce's lab at least.

"I'm okay!" I nodded. Muttering under my breath, I added, "I think."

"I have to help Stark! I'll be back to get you!" He yelled, before running after Stark. A quick nod was all I could give him.

My head was pounding from being knocked around. Taking a deep breath in, I made sure I wasn't seriously injured. Nothing felt broken, just a little achey. I would be covered in bruises by tomorrow. Less than a few seconds later, sparks flew up around me. I threw out a hand, projecting a weak shield to protect my body. My eyes widened at the sudden use of my gift. A faint golden glow shimmered around me, then disappeared. Once I was sitting against the wall, I realized where I was.

Loki watched me from behind his cell walls, which were slowly fading away. With another groan, I pushed myself to my feet. Glass crunched beneath my feet. There was nothing around me I could use as a weapon.

"You are a fast learner, darling Claire," Loki spoke as he stepped from the confines of his cell. He was no longer wearing his 'casual' clothes. He was dressed in his battle armor. I pressed myself back against the wall, trying to figure out a way to escape. "I did not expect you to learn as quickly as you did. You do not know your full potential though."

"Says the person with golden horns on his head," I commented sarcastically.

He 'tsked' at me after he spoke, grinning. At this moment, he looked truly evil. Just behind him to his left was a piece of metal that had broken away from the rest of the carrier. If I could get to that piece, I might have a fighting chance. From somewhere below us, I heard the Hulk yell out. This was just what Loki wanted. Chaos.

The entire ship seemed to shake. I put a hand against a wall to steady myself.

"Are you listening to me, Claire?" Loki's sharp voice drew me back to him. He gave a small sigh. "No, you were not. Dear Claire, what am I going to do with you?"

"Why do you want me, Loki?" I asked, cutting him off from speaking again. I shuffled slightly to the left, hoping to get a clear shop at the metal piece. "Why not Natasha? Why not someone else?"

"Because, you, Claire, have a great power inside of you. You are like me. You hide in the shadow of your brother, never showing your true colors…"

"I am not like you!" I yelled at him. He laughed a little as the ship shook. I had to brace myself again.

"But you are, Claire. I have hidden in Thor's shadow, just like you are hiding in Clinton's. It is time for you to show everyone what you can do. Let me teach you," His voice was smooth. It was alluring. He made me want to listen to him, to let him teach me. I wanted to go with him. "You know this is a good idea. Claire, you could be a queen at my side. We could rule this world together. People would fall at your feet, worship you like a goddess."

"No," I shook my head. He was trying to get inside my head. I could not let him though, I needed to stay focused.

"Claire," He cooed. A faint green light glowed from his hand. His scepter materialized in his hand. The blue gem glowed bright in the tip portion, just below the spear. He looked powerful standing in front of me. Loki looked intimidating, scary. I stood up straight, trying to stand my ground.

"No!" I yelled. "You hurt people, you kill people!"

He looked shocked at my sudden outburst. I took this momentary distraction at my chance to move. I knocked him to the side and lunged for the metal piece on the ground. My fingers barely brushed against the cool metal before I felt Loki's hand on my shoulder, pulling me backwards. His laugh filled my ears. I was so close. Without thinking, I twisted myself around to face him. A single white light shot from my fingertips and into his chest, causing him to stumble. This gave me an advantage and I scrambled to my feet. Before I could reach something to use as a weapon, Loki was on his feet as well.

"Your are a foolish girl," He laughed. Five Loki's circled tightly around me. "I will give you the world, even if you do not want it. You will learn to love the new world, to love the power I will show you."

I quickly spun around, desperately trying to find the real Loki. All of the Loki's were stepping towards me, closing in around me. They looked identical, how was I supposed to find the real one? The Loki's held their scepter up, tip pointing towards me.

"Join me freely or join me as a prisoner, darling Claire. The choice is yours." The voices echoed around me, one of the staffs was almost touching my chest, just below my collar bone. I could feel the ship shaking around me. Think, Claire, think. I took a deep breath and lowered my eyes and head.

"Alright," I whispered. I swallowed hard and looked back up at him. "I'll go with you, but you have to teach me."

"Delightful, Claire!" Loki grinned, his eyes lit up. All but one of the Loki's disappeared, leaving one Loki in front of me. The carrier seemed to shake around us. I reached out to the wall for support again. Loki extended one hand, taking mine to keep me steady. I frowned internally.

He waved a hand and a soft green light surrounded me. My SHIELD issued jumpsuit was replaced with a dark green tunic with slits at the hips. A silver chest plate covered my chest and stomach with pleats at the hips. A pair of leather leggings and black leather boots were on my legs and feet. The boots had metal fastenings as accents. A long cape was attached at the top of my chest plate at the shoulders. It was a dark green to match the tunic.

As soon as my new outfit appeared, the ship started to lean to one side. I looked around panicked. One of my hands shot out, attempting to brace myself on the wall as the ship leaned.

"Do not worry. Everything is going as planned," Loki told me in a smug voice. He took my hand and pulled me away from the wall, where I had been cowering.

"Of course," I said with a small smile. I needed information, now. "Tell me, how do you use so much magic, so efficiently?"

"Its simple, really," He started to talk. He didn't seem to have a care in the world. He was very relaxed. "You have to open your mind. You need to relax, yet stay in control. Think of it like a fire. You control the flame, do not let it die, but do not let it burn everything in its path."

I nodded, taking in what he said. For someone so evil, I understood him. I knew exactly what he was talking about. It made sense and I knew that I could do what he said. It was stupid that I did not figure that out on my own. Loki took a step towards the door when I heard Thor scream.

"No!" Thor came running into the room. He looked exhausted and determined. When he saw me, his face turned to anger. In an accusatory voice he yelled, "You!"

"Thor, no," I started to speak. I needed to explain to him what was happening. He did not let me speak, instead, he spoke quickly.

"No, do not speak. This is all because of you! You are a traitor!"

"Do not listen to him." Loki's voice was plain, nonchalant. Thor began to run towards him, but Loki stepped to the side, pulling me with him. Thor ran straight into the cell that Loki was occupying. Loki laughed at his brother and watched the cell door close on Thor.

"No, Loki," I spoke. Loki sent me a glare and shook his head. I quieted down, scared.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki grinned. I moved towards the glass cell as Loki moved towards the control center. I stopped short when Thor banged his hammer against the glass, causing four metal arms clasped onto the container. I frowned and looked to Loki. He was watching Thor, surprised. The glass held a large crack, but was still intact.

"Loki, stop, please," I begged. He laughed at me and looked to the control panel.

"You will learn to do what is necessary, Claire," He spoke to me, then to Thor. "The humans think us immortal. Should we test that?"

Before Loki could push any buttons, Phil knocked Loki's guard out with a massive gun. It was a Stage Two gun, a sample. Phil looked to me, eyes narrowed, then back to Loki.

"Move away, please. Claire, you too," He spoke. Loki did as he was asked, I stood my ground. Thor was in the cell, watching the scene unfold. "You like this? We started working on the prototype after you sent The Destroyer. Even I don't know what it does. Do you wanna find out?"

As Phil spoke, he moved closer to Loki and me. The machine powered up with a red glow and a mechanical whir. Before I could process what happened next, Thor was screaming behind me. Loki was in front of me, Phil on the ground, bleeding from his chest.

"No," I whimpered, moving to Phil quickly. Loki kicked me away from Phil with his boot. It was going to bruise later, I could feel it. I looked up at him as he pressed the button that opened the hatch beneath the cell. With a delayed movement, he pressed another button, causing the cage to drop from the carrier. A small noise came from my throat, a gasp.

"You're gonna lose," Phil said with a weak voice. He was sitting against the wall, the weapon in his limp hands.

"Am I?" Loki sneered. He looked to me, motioning for me to get up. "Come, Claire."

"It's in your nature."

"You're heroes are scattered, your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where is my disadvantage?" Loki spoke, moving slightly towards Phil. He grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. I guess I was moving too slowly for his liking. I whimpered softly and stood with him. "Let us go, Claire."

"You lack conviction," Phil whispered. I frowned seeing him like this, it broke my heart. Phil nodded just slightly to the right. My brows furrowed, but I noticed his hand twitch. I shuffled a half step to the right as Loki spoke.

"I don't think I…" Suddenly, a ball of red, fire-like light shot from the end of the gun. It blasted Loki through a wall and made me stumble backwards. I had to use the control center to catch my balance.

"So that's what it does." Phil said weakly. The gun was now limp in his hands.

"No, Phil," I scrambled to him. He shook his head.

"Get Loki, Claire. Remember who you are," He spoke. My throat was tight and tears threatened to spill over. I nodded quickly, getting up and moving to go after Loki. As I walked, the outfit Loki had designed for me faded, leaving me in my SHIELD clothes again. I do not know if it was because Loki was not around to keep the illusion up, or if my own anger and magic changed my clothing back to normal.

I caught up to Loki on the deck of the carrier. He was stepping into a jet.

"No! Loki!" I screamed after him. My knees were weak, thinking about Phil. I pressed my lips together, focusing on the gift inside of me. It was about control, he said so. I took a deep breath, raised my hand towards the jet he was leaving on and opened my eyes. Anger fueled my fire. As my eyes opened, a blast of white light shot out and struck the jet. Smoke started to rise from the engine. That would distract him for a little while.


End file.
